The author has a passion for many things with sports (specifically Nebraska football) being the biggest. This blog is mainly about sports related topics but will mix in other aspects of life when the spirit moves.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Pelini to greener pastures rumors par for the course

No sooner does
Bobby Petrino go down in a cloud of disgrace at Arkansas did Nebraska head
coach Bo Pelini’s name become rumored as Petrino’s replacement.

It’s not the
first time Pelini’s name has come up for head coaching jobs not named Nebraska
and it won’t be the last. In the last two years, Pelini has been rumored to
leave Nebraska for Miami, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

Bo Pelini's post-practice
reaction to Nebraska media members would indicate he has no interest in the
job.

"You
talking about the Arkansas thing?" Pelini asked. "Actually, I didn't
even know my name got thrown around. I don't even know how that stuff happens.

"I'm here
and I'm happy to be here."

Pelini went on
to refer to his name being linked to the Arkansas opening is "kind of
ludicrous."

"I always
say this (Nebraska) is a destination job; it's not a steppingstone job,"
he said. "People throw names out there. At the end of the day, we're
focused on trying to win a championship here.

"That's all
I'm concerned with. That's what we're looking forward to doing -- having the
best football team we can this fall."

Arkansas, where
Petrino was the head coach from 2008-2011, fired Petrino on Tuesday for not disclosing his relationship to a female employee.

In March, Petrino was involved in
a motorcycle crash while sliding off the highway. He was riding along with
former Arkansas All-SEC volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, who he had hired on
March 28, as the student-athlete development coordinator for the football
program after serving as a fundraiser in the Razorback Foundation. Petrino
initially said he was alone. However, on April 6, just minutes before a police
report was to be released showing Dorrell was also aboard, Petrino revealed
that Dorrell was not only a passenger, but that he had an inappropriate
relationship with her. Athletic director Jeff Long placed Petrino on an
indefinite paid leave of absence while he reviewed the situation.

On Tuesday, Long announced that
Petrino had been fired. During Long's investigation, it was discovered that
Petrino made a previously undisclosed $20,000 cash gift to Dorrell. It was also
revealed that Dorrell may have received preferential treatment in her hiring to
the football staff, as Petrino's relationship with Dorrell was not disclosed and
Petrino was on the hiring committee. Long determined that Petrino's attempts to
mislead both him and the public about the accident and his relationship with
Dorrell were grounds to fire Petrino for cause. Assistant coach Taver Johnson
was named interim coach.

I think people
linking Pelini to all these other jobs has to do more with the money involved
rather than the Nebraska job being a stepping stone. Pelini is slated to earn
$2.7 million this year.

Pelini is a work
in progress as a head coach, but he is changing things that don't work well to
get even better. That's why I hoped Tom Osborne to offer him a long term
contract, with big incentives to stay the course. The last thing we need is any
kind of head coaching change for the next 15 years. There have already been too
many assistant coaching changes, but some have been necessary to help the
program.

I really just want Pelini and the players to get focused on what they want and
go take what they want. If they can do that, I believe things will improve.

There are a
segment of Husker fans frustrated enough with Pelini to want to see a coaching
change. Pelini has led the Huskers to a 39-16 record, leading a floundering
program out of the Bill Callahan era wreckage from 5-7 in 2007 to 8-4 in 2008
but in the ensuing three years, Nebraska has gone 10-4, 10-4 and 9-4.

However, which
coach would you rather have and what coach is out there right now that would be
a better fit for Nebraska? We've seen what happens when an AD fires a head
coach with no plan on what to do next, you get Callahan and your program dips
into misery it hadn't seen in 30 plus years. So give me a list of coaches that
would be better than Bo that Nebraska would have a legitimate shot at hiring.